SOCIAL NETWORK IN THE PERFORMANCE OF RITUAL

ABSTRACT

In this paper I am going to focus on the performance of ritual and how their practice varied from a very less population to a very large population and across the borders. How migration and tours help in the social networking of rituals, festive events as well as the performance. In this paper I have also mentioned some local rituals and festive events which has started in a small part but now it is practiced in different part of the world.

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VIVEK KUMAR

Social practices and rituals are the constant activities that helps in the structuring of the lives of different communities as well as groups which are shared by and are relevant to most of their members. These are very important as they reassert the identity of the people who practice them either as a group or as a society. It is the affirmations of participants’ identities and beliefs as well as their power. Rituals not only help in the marking of passing of the seasons but also help in the marking of the events in the agricultural calendar. One can trace a community’s world view and the perception of their history and memory with the help or rituals performed by the given community. Performance is an inclusive term meaning the activities of actors, dancers, musicians, and their spectators and audiences. Performances have occurred among all the world's peoples from the dawn of human cultures. Dancing, singing, wearing masks and costumes; impersonating other people, animals, or supernatural (or being possessed by these others); acting stories, retelling the hunt; re-presenting alternative histories; rehearsing and preparing special places and times for these presentations—these are all coexistent with the human condition. Performance and ritual interrelate in a myriad of combinations: in initiations and shamanic healings and exorcisms; in public sacred and secular ceremonies such as the American president or the installation of a judge, the Hindu temple service, the daily facing to Mecca of Muslims and in the daily rituals that individuals perform to maintain the continuity of their individual, family, and professional roles. There are ritual performances, rituals in performances, the ritual frames separating performance reality from the ordinary, and the ritual process underlying how performances are made.

Ritual performances have an economic aspect and impact on the communities enacting them. In premodern, as well as modern and postmodern societies, a sizable proportion of a community's wealth, time, and energy is dedicated to ritual performances. According to Durkheim, the collective rituals and gatherings suggest that she/he is participating in something bigger than themselves. They are part of history or they are morally sanctioned or truly belong to a group. These Rituals vary from a very small gathering to large scale social celebration and commemorations, whether performed public or private.

Some rituals or the events are key parts of public life like New Year carnivals, beginning of Spring or the end of harvest and these are open to all members of society. Birth, Weeding and Burial ceremony are two such typical examples. It is nearly impossible to trace the origin of such worldwide rituals. Carnivals are characterized by an exuberant outburst of public and private masking, partying, dancing, parading, music making, and drinking. Carnivals are celebrated primarily in Europe and the Western Hemisphere, but their performance practices in the New World and West Indian diasporic communities include elements from Africa, Asia, and Native America. Taken as a whole, the carnival complex is a ritual performance of great magnitude. Days or weeks are spent celebrating as the festivities take over entire cities. To some degree, carnivals may be classified as antireligious religious performances, because they could not exist without being in oppositional reference to religious and civil authorities. But, at the same time, there is much going on that is officially sanctioned, well-organized, and tourist-friendly.  Social practices and rituals are strongly affected by the changes that communities undergo in modern societies because they depend so much on the broad participation of practitioners and others in the communities themselves. Different processes such as migration, the general introduction of formal education, the growing influence of major world religions and other effects of globalization have particularly marked effect on these practices.

One of the examples that I would like to mention is the celebration of “Chhath Puja”. Chhath Puja was predominantly celebrated in the Hindi belt of northern India. This festival includes many rituals as well as social practices but because of the globalization as well as migration the rituals of Chhath Puja has travelled in different parts of the world. In 2016, more than 600 Indian-Americans have celebrated Chhath Puja in the US. The social network becomes very strong when it comes to migration. Social practices as well as rituals often serve as special occasions when people return to their homes so that they can celebrate with their families and community and reaffirming their cultural identity and through which they can link to their community traditions.

Another one festive event is Karva Chauth. Karva Chauth originated and came to be celebrated only in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, including cities of Lahore, Multan. Karva Chauth is mostly celebrated in Northern India. But it has also travelled to different part of the world. Many rituals as well as performances which allow for the blending of social and aesthetic impulses of culture and represents an affirmative understanding of culture.

In many communities, it is found that the tourists are participating in large numbers in other’s festive events and it is evident that there can be positive aspects of their involvement but the festivals often suffer in the same way as traditional performing arts. To ensure the continuity of social practices, rituals or festive events it mainly requires the mobilization of a very large number of individuals and the social, political and legal institutions and mechanisms of the society. While respecting the rituals and customary performances which may limit the participation of certain groups and for which it should be desirable to encourage the broadest public participation possible.

 

REFERENCES:

1.      Bauman, Richard, “Performance” in A Companion to Folklore, Wiley-Blackwell

2.      Salamon, Hagar and Goldberg, Harvey, “Myth-Ritual-Symbol” in A Companion to Folklore, Wiley-Blackwell

3.      Hurd, Madeleine, “Introduction – Social Movements: Ritual, Space and Media”, Culture Unbound, Volume 6, 2014: 287–303. Hosted by Linköping University Electronic Press

4.      Social practices, rituals and festive events, Intangible Cultural Heritage (https://ich.unesco.org/en/social-practices-rituals-and-00055)

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6.      (https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/Over-600-Indian-Americans-celebrate-Chhath-in-U.S./article16439214.ece)